'WHAT ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE VICTIMS?' They Are the Most Notorious Killers in Welsh Criminal History - Murderers Whose Crimes Sickened the Nation. but This Week European Judges Ruled That Life Sentences No Longer Necessarily Mean Life for Those Responsible for Wales' Most Horrific Offences. DARREN DEVINE Reports

'WHAT ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE VICTIMS?' They Are the Most Notorious Killers in Welsh Criminal History - Murderers Whose Crimes Sickened the Nation. but This Week European Judges Ruled That Life Sentences No Longer Necessarily Mean Life for Those Responsible for Wales' Most Horrific Offences. DARREN DEVINE Reports

THEIR names make up a chilling who's who of the men behind the darkest crimes in recent Welsh history.

Peter Moore, Mark Bridger, John Cooper, Malcolm Green.

All were told their offences placed them beyond the reach of rehabilitation and they must die in jail with no prospect of tasting freedom again.

Beyond Wales the list of those serving whole-life sentences includes some of the UK's most notorious killers. Among them are Moors murderer Ian Brady, cop killer Dale Cregan, Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Britain's only living female whole lifer Rose West.

But what for many seemed an entirely justifiable decision to "throw away the key" for the very worst cases has now been turned on its head by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

Judges there voted by 16 to one that telling the likes of serial killer Rose West and April Jones' murderer Mark Bridger that they will never leave jail alive amounts to a breach of their human rights and "inhuman" and "degrading" punishment.

Psychologist Elie Godsi, who has worked with some of Britain's most high-profile killers, believes the Grand Chamber was right to rule all murderers - no matter how heinous their crimes - must be offered hope.

Author of Violence and Society: Making Sense of Madness and Badness Mr Godsi says during his 20-year career he has seen "many" killers reform.

Mr Godsi, who worked with "Angel of Death" nurse Beverley Allit - who murdered four children in her care - said: "In principle everybody is redeemable.

I think the judgements are made not on that basis (whether the killer can reform). They're based on the severity of the crime and what is deemed sufficient punishment."

But he admits there are some killers who show little evidence of change and can never be freed. "I've also known and worked with people that I would never want to be back in the community. Those judgements are made on the fact they don't do anything when they're in prison. They continue to deny their offences or say they don't want to do any work. They don't comply and carry on failing drugs tests.

"You put all those ingredients together and they should never be released. No-one is beyond redemption, but some people prove not to be redeemable. " Malcolm Green, by now the least well-known of the four Welsh monsters condemned to die behind bars, was given a life sentence in 1991.

He was jailed for what became known as the "Body in the Bags" killing - just two years after he had been released from another life term for the murder of a Cardiff prostitute.

The recommendation was that the double killer, from Ely, Cardiff, should serve a minimum of 25 years for the murder of New Zealander Clive Tully - whose torso, head and limbs were found in bags. But Green was given a whole life tariff by the then Home Secretary.

Green's victim in the Body in the Bags case was identified after a newspaper graphic artist produced a computer-enhanced photograph of the victim.

The murder hunt was launched after the grisly discovery of a torso in Rogerstone, followed a few days later by a head and limbs in St Brides Wentloog - in the marshlands between Cardiff and Newport.

After Green was tracked down, it emerged he had only recently been released from jail for a similarly gruesome murder 20 years previously, when the victim had also been cut up.

Cinema owner Peter Moore, 65, was dubbed the most dangerous man ever to set foot in Wales at his trial in 1996.

That hearing was told how he butchered Henry Roberts, Edward Carthy, Keith Randles and Tony Davies to satisfy his perverted sexual urges.

The judge recommended that Moore - labelled "the Man in Black" during his reign of violence - was among the most dangerous category of killers who should never be let out, a decision upheld at the time by Welsh-born Home Secretary Michael Howard. …

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'WHAT ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE VICTIMS?' They Are the Most Notorious Killers in Welsh Criminal History - Murderers Whose Crimes Sickened the Nation. but This Week European Judges Ruled That Life Sentences No Longer Necessarily Mean Life for Those Responsible for Wales' Most Horrific Offences. DARREN DEVINE Reports

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